UN says Native American Sioux should have say in pipeline project
UNITED NATIONS- The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is calling on the US government to allow the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to have a say regarding a $3.8 billion oil pipeline that they say could disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for 8,000 tribal members.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the forum's chairman Alvaro Pop Ac called for a "fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent process to resolve this serious issue and to avoid escalation into violence and further human rights abuses."
Native Americans from reservations hundreds of miles around have joined the growing protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will pass through Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota, causing the company to temporarily halt construction.
